Scary Statistics: Fewer Youths Hunting and Fishing

We recently read some disturbing numbers in the article from the Wall Street Journal, “The Outfitters’ Lament: Too Few Kids With Guns.” I was shaking my head with concern over the statistics about the youth of America and what they’re missing out on in the great outdoors.

What a shame that video games have taken away young people’s enjoyment of the outdoors and spending time in the outdoors, hunting, shooting and fishing. We see overweight children and are disgusted by their sedentary lifestyles. Many rural families for generation after generation have migrated to the cities leaving no one on the farm to foster these sports. If we’re not careful, there will not be enough generations left to even pass on the memories and life values learned in the field.

So many youth will grow into adults and never know the joy of sitting in a tree stand watching a squirrel approach within inches, or watching a river otter along a bank as you check out the “just right” fishing hole. I could go on and on with breathtaking memories spent hunting and fishing as a youth that I feel all young people should be encouraged to experience and enjoy.

Besides the valuable lifetime experience hunting provides, we are all aware of how massively outdoorsmen and outdoorswomen support conservation with the revenue from our hunting and fishing licenses. For those who don’t hunt and fish but enjoy the outdoors in other areas, conservation programs are in trouble without the support of this revenue!

This particular article speaks of the outdoor industry and how we’re all trying to curb this decline, but it’s going to take a “fad” of sorts to make it fun, acceptable and cool again. We need to fight for the cause and embrace what promotes these outdoor activities with pride.

CollegiateCamo is doing our part by combining the collegiate-loyal with the outdoors-proud. We show our passion for the outdoors, hunting and fishing by offering the community camouflage college decals and apparel.  Maybe what it takes is “hanging on to the coat tails of successful endeavors and combining the two to excite our youth about the outdoor sports.”

What are you doing to keeping hunting and fishing alive?